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Some Assembly Required: Mod Your Own Avengers Games

Considering the awesome film just smashed the opening weekend box office record, it seems like a huge oversight that there's no official Avengers game available to let us play as Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and the other two. So PC gamers have, as usual, taken matters into their own hands and come up with a solution: Here's a collection of mods you can use to assemble your own Avengers adventure.

Once upon a time, PC gamers didn't have much choice in terms of quality superhero games. There was Freedom Force, a clever 2002 throwback to Silver Age comics, and that was about it. Its was basically The Avengers, with Minuteman standing in for Captain America, or Man-Bot looking like Iron Man. But if "basically the Avengers" wasn't good enough, well, there was the Avengers Special mod for the game.

We're Avengers. We avenge.

"Avengers Special" is one of those mods built on the "more is better" philosophy, with dozens of characters and different skins crammed into a loose storyline. There are also Freedom Force's customizable/random "Danger Room" missions, giving you the opportunity to set up whatever kind of fight you want with dozens of major and minor heroes and villains, even from different stories and companies. So if you want a game where you can make Hulk punch Thor, Loki, and Batman (?!?), you can't beat Freedom Force.

Then came the X-Men Legends/Ultimate Alliance games offered quality licensed superhero games (that played fairly similarly to Freedom Force...). The first Ultimate Alliance game added a pile of heroes from the wider Marvel universe, including every major character from the Avengers movie, as long as you have the mod that unlocks the system exclusives. But that wasn't Avenger-y enough for some, who released Avengers mod for a game that was already essentially about the Avengers. Yeah, we're confused too.

You know what would be a perfect Avengers mod? Having Thor, the Norse God Of Thunder, as a companion in Skyrim. That's so perfect, so obviously fitting, so downright essential...that it hasn't happened. Modders: get on this. Until then, we've got a couple half-steps in the right direction: first, a skin for a playable Thor that does look fairly close to Chris Hemsworth, and second, a Mjolnir hammer to be found in the game. We really just need the red cape and some barks from the movie, and we're gold.

The Courier almost seems like a superhero already. A miraculous awakening after near-certain death, she then slowly gains more and more power, until the entire Mojave Wasteland bends to her whim. That power can be developed in any number of ways—New Vegas is designed for that kind of player freedom. Wanna shoot lasers and wear heavy armor, like Iron Man? You can do that. Perhaps a massively strong, intellectually challenged Hulk-type Courier? Also viable. With the "Avengers Costumes" mod, you can pick an appropriate superhero garb, so the person you're role-playing on the inside looks like an Avenger on the outside.

One of the problems with adding Iron Man skins to most games is that Iron Man can fly. That's cool. Really cool. But flying characters are fairly rare in most games that have characters to skin. Rico Rodriguez, protagonist of Just Cause II, can't fly. But he does have a grappling hook that lets him come close. Zoom from a cliff to a helicopter, punch out the pilot, fly as high as you can, jump out and free-fall wherever you want to on the island of Panau. And, with this mod, you can do it as Iron Man. It even hides certain weapons, like pistols, so you can look like you're fighting from your power-suit just like Tony Stark.

At first glance, Iron Man and Nico Bellic don't have much in common. Tony Stark was born into wealth and privilege, Nico Bellic arrived a poor immigrant. Iron Man can fly, Nico gets winded after running for a block or two. Stark buys cars, Bellic steals them. But if you look a little closer, you find that both men represent the American Dream through subtle character depictions...nah, we're just kidding. The Iron Man skin for GTAIV looks cool, though.

HULK SOMETIMES THINK LIFE PRETTY GOOD. BUT HULK ALSO WORRIED THAT HULK STUCK IN RUT. YOU KNOW HULK LOVE BOOKS SO PART-TIME JOB AT BOOKSTORE SEEM LIKE GOOD IDEA, BUT VERY LITTLE OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVANCEMENT. HULK WANT MORE MONEY MAYBE BUY BETTER EXERCISE MACHINE BUT HULK ALSO WORRIED THAT DIFFERENT JOB WILL CUT INTO HULK'S "ME" TIME.

HULK ALSO HAVING TROUBLE WITH GIRLS. HULK THINK HULK DO EVERYTHING RIGHT WITH LADY AT PUBLIC POOL, BUT SHE APPARENTLY LESS IMPRESSED BY HULK.

Spy Guy says: Those are some super additions you have there. Get it? Super? Eh, nevermind. Did we miss any of your favorite Avengers mods in this roundup? Besides the Avengers, what are some of your favorite superhero mods? Sound off in the comments below.